Van De Graaff Electrostatic High Voltage Generator

Step 1 The parts for the VDG

The only parts in this that you are not likely to find at your local hardware store are the wheels.   I used bed frame wheels. their choice sorta dictated the size of Van De Graaff (Henceforth called VDG for short.)  More about the wheels later.

These are the parts used.
1 Lightbulb socket (I pried out the bottom most contact, to give less surface area to bleed off static charges.
1 Large globe lightbulb
1 1.50"" to 2" pvc adapter (lightbulb socket fits in here nicely, and gives space to mount the brushes)
1 2" to 3" pvc adapter
1 3" to 3" PVC Coupler
1 5" threaded rod and assorted washers and nuts,  I think it was 5/32"
1 6" threaded bolt, and washers, small enough for the wheel to glide on)
2 slightly curved plastic bedframe rollers. (was going to use skateboard wheels sanded down on my drillpress, but my dad had these in his shop)
1 3"x3"x1.50" PVC Tee
1 length of pvc (Ihad to use ABS which is not as good due to its carbon content, but it was all I could find in precut lengths, and didnt want to buy 9 more feet of pipe.
1 1.50" to 0.25" pvc adapter
2 sets of skateboard wheel bearings,
Some copper wire both to make a ground wire, and a spark wand wire, but also to make the brushes.
1 outlet plug (this is only connected to the ground pin
1 can of cold galvanizing spraypaint
1 can of copper metallic spraypaint
1 drill socket adapter. (to turn the bottom wheel)
1 drill, (optional speed controller)
1 sheet of latex exercise banding
1 tube of bike tire patch glue.
Teflon pipe tape,
copper foil tape
Other misc Stuff, A board to screw it down to and some long screws. and A binding post for the charge wand, some wire, a old junk drawer nob pull for the wand, some plastic tubing for the shaft of the wand.

Comments

[jbussé]

I thought you needed the grounding. doesn't you electrons come from the ground??

[killbox]

It was grounded via a wire and a outlet plug (only using the ground pin) it helped, but still got a spark not using it.

[rrousseau]

how much would all this cost and how tall and wide is it?

[squalyl]

3 pictures for an instructable is quite short :(
nice project however.

[killbox]

Its about 7 or 8 photos, last i checked, I was working with what I had, a few other folks got a few, and im planning on doing a little disassembly next week, wherein i hope to snap a few photographs to show the brushes and a few other parts of it.

Anything in particular you would like to see?

[squalyl]

the belt, the brushes, etc... and how to assemble it, "step by step".

That would be useful for folks that want to build it! Text is nice, but pictures are always very precious to help check everything is ok!

thanks a lot !

[killbox]

I added about 9 new photos, involving more of the lower assembly, and brushes. hope that helps.

[clemsonguy1125]

Is this the spray you uses, It looks good. I may make one but use a 10 dollar cheapo dremal from harbor freight..

[thinkdunson]

how long does it take to build up the juice to fire off a 2" spark?
and what difference does the ground make in that time?
you would probably need to somehow mount the wand so that you can get a consistent distance for timing.  maybe mount it to the side of the shaft?  as a matter of fact, it would be cool for demonstration if you had a couple of them mounted so that it could spark back and forth randomly.

[killbox]

it will do a 1.5" spark within about 10 seconds, its not reliably building up enough for a 2" i strongly suspect the black ABS piping is the cause, if the belt ever breaks, or if when i tear it down a bit to add some photos (hopefully early May), i may try and replace the ABS with PVC

I did find the charge does indeed build faster with the ground plug in, and you get a better "zap" if you are touching the wand to ground yourself.

ideally for the best zap zap, demo you setup another globe same size ans height and ground that one,

I may play with garden globes next.

[csswimdude]

can you touch it safely and will it make hair stand, I'm making one to get out of finals and these are a bonus

[killbox]

Yes you can touch it safely, it feels like a good zap from walking across carpet on socks. It was able to make some tinsel streamers stand up, and also static charge a bottle with iron filings in it. nobody around had good hair for testing the "fly away hair" effect. but yes it should!

[avanner77]

Whenever I've seen these used for the stand up hair effect, you always had to stand on a rubber pad to prevent the charge from actually shocking you. this is also to let the static flow through your body and not discharge to ground.

[csswimdude]

very nice if we get one to work our teacher will be ecstatic

[cgshirley]

you link at the end for quelab.net has a space at the end so the link doesn't work

[killbox]

Thanks! fixed!

[Hudsonnc]

Very cool. i was just thinking about making one. What are the chances? How much did the whole thing cost you?

[killbox]

I might be over estimating too, but someone starting from scratch would also need the spraypaint and the bike patch glue and some teflon/copper tape, most of these things i had laying around.

[killbox]

I didnt keep a very good tally sheet, of my costs. probably somewhere around $40 in pvc piping and fittings, another another 10 in hardware and socket,

Scavenged the wire, and the wheels, and the wand knob, and the wood its mounted on, used a drill and a controller we had.

oh yah the exercise band was pricy, came in a pack of 3 at about $12 only used part of one, so will probably use the other 2 for something else like a giant slingshot or whatnot. might be able to buy single ones, or find another source. (id love to find big rubberbands.

[GWJax]

You can use a bike tire tube as well, Just cut it down to size and glue it up like you did with the exercise bands and the cost of a new tube is from $1.50 to $4.50 that's a big drop in price unless you find a trashed bike at the corner for trash pickup then is FREE...
BTW Great Idable!!

Jax

[killbox]

I thought about that, but read online that most folks were not getting much static, (presumably due to the conductivity cause by the high amount of carbon mixed in with tubes/tires)

Found at a local artshop, had nice large gummy ribber portfolio bands, that were about 1/2 the size i want. but would make a good VDG 1/2 this size.